Presentations and Speculative Dialogues

We invite you to join us for a series of public forums addressing the contributions the Institute for Modern Art has made to Queensland’s art ecology; reconnecting the institution with previous generations and generating speculation about visions for the future.

For the final instalment of our fiftieth anniversary forum series, we’re pressing fast forward to speculate upon possible future states of the IMA.

Imagine the IMA in fifty years' time, after the ice caps have melted or First Nations sovereignty recognised. What will the current issues and art be? What form will the institution take? Delegates of the future make their pitch—pecha kucha style.

Blaklash, Wreckers Artspace’s Sarah Poulgrain and Llewellyn Millhouse, Dirk Yates and Tara Heffernan will each take the floor, MC’d by Christina Cho. Presentations have been developed in consultation with story-thinking expert Dr Joanne Anderton, University of Queensland’s WhatIF Lab.

This is a free, seated event. All welcome. Please RSVP to confirm your attendance.

2025 marks 50 years since the Institute for Modern Art first opened its doors in Brisbane. For five decades, we’ve presented the latest contemporary art; connecting the local, national, and international, the established and the emergent; offering a hub for the art life in Brisbane. We have navigated the chops, changes, and paradigm shifts that have marked the art of our times. To celebrate our fiftieth anniversary, we are presenting three public forums. The first two excavate our past; the third imagines our future. Each will be followed by a performance.

Contact the host of Pecha Kucha: Visions for the Future